“The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets” ~Psalm 50:1

Big Plans and Small Details

It occurred to me the moment I got out of my husband’s ill-parked pick-up that I was blocking the alley. What can I say? I’m not all about backing that rig in squarely. I am a girl, after all.

“Gino’s not gonna like that. You need to move and park where I showed you.”

Gino is the landlord. The alley leads up to his house. Sunday, we retrieved the last load of garage belongings from the old building. I was only going to stay there for ten minutes while I loaded the wood, but, for a man with integrity, ten minutes was too long to risk inconveniencing a former landlord. He still has a few loose ends to tie up there, but there is no doubt he is good for his word.

I got to thinking, how many men actually think this way in business or otherwise?

Often, when people on or quit a job, you’ll hear them cursing the boss, thumbing their nose at the authority, and badmouthing any perceived injustice experienced in that place. There is an unprecedented entitlement epidemic which has swept our entire nation. Whether one works or doesn’t work, he’s entitled to good pay in exchange for nothing more than slackness, pride, and a big ego.

Not Mr. Rodeheaver, though. My husband is the kind of guy who cares about inconveniencing his former landlord. He’s the kind of guy that charges less than he should even when his bills are more than he could have imagined. Tim’s a guy who will spend half of his day answering questions for concerned and confused customers when he’s got five cars calling his name. When people ask how he is, he always replies, “Better than I deserve.” There’s not a hint of entitlement when he bows his head before each meal. The return of his hardlabor is realized in his humility in the small things he says and does daily. There is no doubt; Albeit unfinished, God has done a work in him.

Last night he moved the very last item, the furnace and oil tank, from the old shop. Today marks the official end of end our stay at 1409 McClellandtown Road; the beginning of a new start, ironically, at an address that will ever remind him why he lives, breathes, and labors in the first place: 15 West Cross Ave.

Tim’s business is steadily growing, which sure beats the alternative – dying. Because there is no room for stagnation in a gig like this. Growth is good, but it does tend to present a whole new slew of complications to work through. I stumbled upon a passage concerning growth within the church and, I believe, for a man with integrity, it’s spot on for his business, too. It says this:

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. ~Acts 6:4

When the disciples increased and the church began to grow, new issues arose. The leaders quickly learned that they must delegate to trustworthymen of integrity to serve under them. They knew they could not subtract from or forsake their diligence in prayer or preaching the gospel.

Pray. Preach the gospel. Those are the two directives for a successful leader in God’skingdom. The only alternative is building your own kingdom…and, if the Tower of Babel rings any sort of bells for us, we should all know how that will ultimately turn out. Regardless of what line of work you’re in, work as though you’re serving the Lord.